Project Rebirth
by WillySmith1510
Summary: (DISCONTINUED AT THE MOMENT!) Plot revision needed. This is not the fic you're looking for. Move along. Move along...
1. Rebirth

**Project Rebirth**

Yuzuru Otonashi doesn't know what happened to him last night.

He woke up as usual this morning, but he can't help but feeling strange. It's as if he has just returned from a different world.

Last night, he had a dream.

A dream that involves a completely different world than the world he's in right now.

In that dream, he was dead.

He remembered meeting quite a few people there.

All of them, dead, just like him.

He remembered making friends with those dead people.

It's just weird, those 'dead' people there seems more alive than this 'living' world he lived in right now.

But he just can't remember what happened.

He can't remember them at all.

Except, maybe...

_Angel?_

Who's Angel?

For Yuzuru, Angel was someone very important to him during the time he was in that 'dream', but he just couldn't remember 'how' she was important to him.

_She?_

Yeah, Angel's female.

_A very beautiful and cute one, too._

Yuzuru's memories of her is vague, but he still remember that she has a long white hair.

He couldn't remember all of her, but he just knew that she meant something to him in that dream.

But, it was all just a dream.

_Is it?_

"Screw it." Yuzuru thought. "I'm late for school now!"

* * *

Yuzuru just couldn't believe his fate.

These late night studies to become a qualified doctor has been killing him. He fell asleep during the class twice in a role, and got scolded by his teacher as a result. His after class task almost cost him his lunch. Even worse, his biology teacher asked him to participate in the somewhat awkward 'human anatomy' experiment. To add insult to injury, he was chosen to explain the 'rectum' section. (Well, it's the part where you use to...err..._export_ unwanted materials in your body through your, yeah, _that_...)

"How is it that Murphy's Law always occurred to me?" Yuzuru asked himself, annoyed by his not-so-happy afternoon.

After the school ended, Yuzuru returned home, and found his sister waiting for him.

His younger sister, Hatsune Otonashi, is a cheerful and friendly person, but can also sometimes be very annoying to him. She's also a manga freak. He had to buy her at least two comic books a week...

However annoying she is, she's still the only family left to him.

Yuzuru and Hatsune's parents died in a plane accident almost five years ago, leaving Yuzuru and Hatsune to live with their aunt at the local inn, where they helped their aunt in her inn business to earn some part-time money.

Even still, they weren't that close to aunt, really. It's true that she has been nice to him and his sister, and always supported them in education and welfare, but for all that matters, they only have each other.

"Brother! I'm going to my friend's birthday today! Could you help me with an errand today?"

"What errand?" Yuzuru asked in an annoyed voice.

"Aw, don't sound so bored! Aunt just wanted you to sent this letter to Mrs. Kouko, her friend in a little town called Hikarizaka. She's just got married, you know!"

"Well, why didn't she just sent a congratulation email or message or something? Letters are _so _last century!" Yuzuru protested.

"Ah, you dummy, congratulation letter is the best way to give blessings to someone's wedding!" Hatsune argued.

"Oh, right, I'll do it. Just give me that letter..." Yuzuru gave up, He'd never really had any chance at winning an argument with his sister anyways.

"Really, you'll do it for me? Yay!" Hatsune cheered, then quickly ran to the front door.

"Take care of yourself, brother!" She gave him a lively smile before running out of the inn.

* * *

"Damn it, as if today's sufferings is not bad enough, now I'm an errand boy for my sister!" Yuzuru complained to himself all the way to the post office. He already changed into his casual clothes, wearing a white shirt with light-green jacket and black jeans.

After sending that letter, Yuzuru checked the time in his cell phone.

It was only 17.12, there's still time to wonder around.

And with that, Yuzuru walked to the nearby park to enjoy some free time he desperately wanted.

Normally, the park is usually a peaceful and quiet place for him to spent some much-needed time to do some revision on school lessons. But not today, as the park's become a place for the local concert event.

_Ah, darn it._ Yuzuru looked at the sign showing information about today's concert.

'Girls Delight Mobsters'

_What kind of name was that?_ Yuzuru wondered.

It sounds strange, but he can't shake the feeling that he knows the band's name from somewhere.

_Girls Delight Mobsters..._

_Girl...De...Mo..._

_What the heck._

_Ah! My mind's gone crazy from all these hard work! Need to get some air!_

Yuzuru hurried to get out of there, but his path was blocked by a crowd of people who's trying to see the concert.

"Hey! Get out of the way, man! I wanted to see my precious Yui on the stage!" A blue-haired teenager in a baseball uniform shouted.

"Order! You must keep order! Or else you won't be seeing the concert! Listen to me!" A green-haired boy, who's apparently a staff working at the concert, shouted back at that blue-haired boy. Those two shared a furious look to each other for a while.

Yuzuru tried to find the alternate route to get out of there. The concert's already started and the crowds is rushing in uncontrollably. He caught a glimpse of the people on the stage.

The Girls Delight Mobsters consisted of all female members. Yuzuru saw two of the members, one is the lead singer who's also a guitarist. She had a pink-red hair, while the other singer on the stage is a young girl who had a pink hair with two bunches tied up with red laces. She's wearing a weird costume with a devil tail.

_Ah, this feeling again..._

Yuzuru can't help but feeling that he knew them from somewhere...it's like a deja vu.

"Hey, are you alright?" A female voice asked, Yuzuru turned to her.

"Who are you?" Yuzuru asked back, the girl in front of him has a purple hair and sea green eyes. Her hair has a headband and a yellow ribbon.

"Ah, sorry! Where are my manners! I'm Yuri. I'm the supervisor of this concert. I saw that your face looked kinda weird, so I thought you needed some help." A girl named Yuri said.

"Um, I'm alright. Anyways, thanks for asking. I was just having a strange feeling."

"What kind of feeling?" Yuri asked.

"It's the first time I've ever seen this band, but I can't help shake the feeling that I've know them before..." Yuzuru told her.

"Oh, we get that a lot. GirlDeMo is a very popular student band in this town, they've even sold their first album already! With my little help, of course! It's no surprise you might've know them from somewhere. We've been making our reputation lately." Yuri explained.

"Oh, I see" Yuzuru signed.

_So it was nothing...I was just paranoid._

"That's a nice concert you've got there. If I have a chance, I might go to their concert again sometimes." Yuzuru said. This person, Yuri. She's very friendly.

"No problem! We're having a concert at our school, the Saisei* High School, in a couple of days. If you wanted, you could come to our concert that day." Yuri said happily.

"Whoa, I actually studied at Saisei High School! So you studied there, too?" Yuzuru said, surprised at what he had heard.

"What a coincidence! All of us studied there! I'm part of a student group, the Saisei Student Services, or you could call it SSS, for short." Yuri said proudly.

"That's amazing, Yuri. It's a wonder why we haven't meet each other yet, after all these years in that school." Yuzuru said.

"Well, it's a big school, and I had to do a lot of works, so I haven't got enough time to see my friends except those in the SSS. But we always welcome new members, you could join us if you wanted!"

"Ah, I'll think about it. Thank you again for helping me, but I really need to get home now. See you at school!"

"Right! No problem! Thank you for coming by!" Yuri smiled at him.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Yuzuru was walking down the business distinct.

_What a day..._

Yuzuru thought back about the recent events that happened to him. He could've sworn he recognize Yuri from somewhere, not to mention that GirlDeMo band. It's like something got stuck in his head but he doesn't know what it is.

And those two guys, the blue-haired boy and the green-haired boy. He never met them before in his life, but he couldn't help but feeling that they meant something to him, even though he had only met them for a couple of seconds before being pushed away by the crowd.

He was thinking about these mysterious events when he walked past a young girl leaning at the building wall. She was wearing a brown hat, a light blue jacket over her white dress.

She was humming a strange tune.

_What the..._

_I recognized that tune..._

_And that voice..._

_It couldn't be..._

Yuzuru turned back, just in time to see the girl starting to walk away.

He reached his arm out.

_It's impossible..._

_How could she be here?_

_It's...ah...damn it! _

Memories started floating back to him, hitting him like a strong wave hitting the shore side rocks.

_SSS, GirlDeMo, Afterlife, Shadows, Angel, God, Life, Death..._

His hand finally touched her shoulder.

"Kanade-chan, is that you?"

* * *

"Project Afterlife proved to be a failure, sir."

Somewhere in a disclosed location, two men in black suits started discussing about their failed 'project'.

"It's just a minor setback. There was a saboteur. At least the Shadow Incident ended peacefully. The participants all survived, that alone made it a success."

"The last participant, database name: Yuzuru, was the last one to log out of the system, sir. As of now, he's not aware of the past two years he's been in coma from the train accident that cost him his life."

"Yuzuru, eh? Isn't that the boy who saved all those lives from that collapsed tunnel?"

"Yes, sir."

The first man recalled the events of how he met the young boy named Yuzuru Otonashi.

_That boy saved everyone. He sacrificed himself to save all those lives._

_But he didn't deserve to die._

_A good soul cannot be allowed to be gone like that._

And so, he saved him. He gave him a new artificial heart, while using his heart as a donor for a young white-haired girl who's suffered from a severe heart damage caused by a major accident.

Unfortunately, it didn't help anything, and the girl went into coma as well.

_Why is the world so cruel at young people like them?_

And so, he created a new world for them, using technologies created by his father. A power to create a virtual world, a world where they could live in peace. A world where they could be anything they wanted to be. A world where they could do things they couldn't in their real life state.

That was the purpose of Project Afterlife.

Believe it or not, he created this new world when he was just only 15 years old, being a computer prodigy and the son of one of the most revolutionary programmer in the history might have something do with his unbelievable knowledge.

But even the most perfect man cannot have anything, he was disabled, right from his waist down, he was cursed with legs that could not walk. They call it the brittle bone disease, a disease which affected your limbs so you cannot use your limbs properly.

He understand the pain of being disabled, being someone who could never achieve their 100% capacity no matter what they do, and so, he decided to create a world, a wonderland for those disabled people, for them to experience life the way it was meant to be while he tried to 'fix' them in the real world.

Even with cybernetic legs, he didn't stop in helping those poor souls, unlike his father, whose work has killed almost four thousands people just to satisfy his childhood dream.

He never really liked his father, after all.

Kayaba Akihiko could be a lot of things, but being a good father was not one of them. Not a single time he bought presents for his birthday, nor taken him to the hospital when he's sick. He always cared more for his works than his own child. That's why he didn't really feel anything at all when Kayaba died because of a glitch in his own creation.

And thus, Hideo Akihiko turned to something he could do, something his father would never do; helping people.

For four years, he succeeded in saving most of the participants in Project Afterlife. Two years after the server went online, a lot of them were cured or helped to get over their traumatic experiences. Even the white-haired girl was saved, and Yuzuru, yeah, that boy was also saved. The upgraded artificial heart works like a charm. He wouldn't even know that almost half of his body was controlled by artificial tissues.

But there was a setback.

One participant grew tired of the world he created, and tried to revolt against the system, leading to the infamous Shadow Incident that almost killed every people inside that world. He discovered the secret of using the systems to his advantage, to manipulate the minds of those inside that world. Most of the people inside Afterlife were forced to log out of the system before their minds got consumed by him.

Nevertheless, the Shadow Incident was finally resolved by the people living inside that world working together. He had to give it to those people; even when the situation for them is hopeless, they won't ever stop fighting. They will never give up no matter what.

But the result from the Shadow Incident was severe, and all participants were forced to log out of that system, even though most of them grew attached to the life lived there. But there was no choice.

And so, Project Afterlife came to an end.

All participants were logged out of Afterlife with no remaining memories of what they did inside that world left. They were given false memories to help them getting back to live their normal lives. Their relatives were given trainings and advices on how to conceal the information about the project from the participants.

Project Afterlife never existed for them. There was no afterlife.

"Sir, there's still some people who needs help."

A scene in front of him showed a picture of a young boy. Probably 17-18 years old, he has a black hair.

"This kid was in coma for almost two weeks now."

"And why was that?"

"He was attacked by an unknown assailant two weeks ago by a poison that gave him severe brain damage. Since that, he's been held up by the Japanese Government to participate in some top secret military project."

"But then, it seems that his mind was damaged beyond repair, so they handed him over to us, hoping that we could do something to help him."

The man looked at the boy's face on the screen.

"He's still very young."

"But isn't he the one who saved all those lives?"

"He was a hero in a world that doesn't exist anymore. A world my father created. There are no heroes in real life. Even if there's one, they'll probably ended up like him."

The man stared at the boy's name on the screen.

It reads: Kirigaya Kazuto.

"Send him to participate in our new project. We're gonna save this boy no matter what."

"Yes, sir. Mr. Akihiko."

The man in black suit started to walk away.

"Begin Project Rebirth."

* * *

**Editor's note: This chapter has been rewritten, for the sake of fixing the flaws in the original timeline, where I made Angel Beats! timeline to overlap with SAO timeline and accidentally made Yuzuru and the SSS to become too old than I first imagine, and too old for them to still be studying in high school. So, using the SAO timeline table on the swordartonlinewikia . com. I've created a new timeline to match the SAO timeline to the Angel Beats! timeline without making too much age differences (and also illogical) to the main characters. In short, the SAO Incident took place FOUR YEARS BEFORE this story, while Yuzuru went to the Afterlife, and began the Angel Beats! timeline, TWO YEARS EARLIER, which means that he went to the Afterlife at almost the same time as Kirito and co. escaped SAO. Further information will be explained at the end of the chapter 3, which will get a rewritten, too. **

*Saisei means Rebirth in Japanese. That's a lucky choice a get, because I don't know even a little Japanese. I just found it while searching the Japanese dictionary on the net. I tried to find a word that will match the SSS acronym in the real world, and I got this, which has a meaning related to the plot I'm going to write as well. Lucky me!


	2. Arrival To Eden

A young black-haired boy woke up in a very strange place.

There's nothing but a vast white space around him.

The boy didn't remember anything, neither how he got here nor why was he here.

He didn't even remember that his name is Kirigaya Kazuto.

* * *

_Subject 51 Brain Wave Transfusion Status: 98% *ERROR* Severe brain damage detected in the cerebrum section, proper brain synchronization not completed._

Even after the message on the screen told him the worst news, Hideo Akihiko still remained calm as usual, as if this is just another obstacle he had to clear.

"Restart the final phrase, but reroute the brain wave transfer from the damaged cerebrum section. We cannot risk to further damage his brain." Hideo ordered his subordinates.

"But sir, that means that boy will lose his memories!" One of his officers, Richard, said.

"Would you rather see him die, Richard? Besides, we've done this before."

"...yes, sir." Richard complied in a slightly disappointed voice.

That part was true. This wasn't the first time a 'glitch' like this happened. Most of the participants in Project Afterlife are the ones traumatized so much by their experiences in the real world that their brains got damaged by too much stress, but some of them, like Kazuto, suffered severe brain damages by accidents or something. Even with today's technology, brain fixing is not an easy task. It's a neat and delicate process and must be done with extreme caution by experienced doctors.

For Hideo, someone who is in a condition like Kirigaya Kazuto like now is a dead man. There's no chance in hell or anywhere that a severe brain damage in the cerebrum section could be healed without any side effects, if it could be permanently healed at all...

But one miracle changed Hideo's idea, and that miracle is called Yuzuru Otonashi.

Yuzuru was also suffered from a brain disease. After his valiant efforts to rescue the collapsed tunnel victims resulted in his 'death', Yuzuru suffered from Retrograde amnesia prior his arrival in Afterlife. However, given enough time, he started to regain his memories back while the doctors trying to fix his brain in the real world. Against all odds, they succeeded in doing the impossible.

Now, it's Kirigaya Kazuto's turn, and he's sure as hell won't give him up now.

This was the boy who've beaten his father, after all.

_Brain Wave Transfer completed. Subject 51 successfully logged in._

"Now, now, isn't that great news..." Hideo said to himself.

* * *

Kirigaya Kazuto, no, a boy who was once called Kirigaya Kazuto, slowly stands up.

He looked around and saw nothing but white spaces.

_How the hell am I ever going to get out of here?_

"Do you need assistance, sir?"

The boy's body shook, he turned around and see a young female in a white dress.

_Whoa _The woman's transparent skins reflected the white spaces around her.

_She's a hologram._

"Welcome to the Garden of Creation, sir. I am Eve #07. I'm created to be your guide in introducing you to the world of Eden."

The boy doesn't understand anything she has just said.

"Wait, what? Where am I? What am I doing here? What's Eden?"

Eve #07 gave him a smile.

"No need to worry sir, it appeared you've suffered from a rather major memory loss. Please stand still, sir."

Suddenly, the boy felt that memories started floating back to him, little by little, but he still can't understand his purpose here.

"Do you remember anything now, sir?" The girl asked.

"I...My...My name is..." _Kiriba? Kayaba? Kazuya? Kiyato?_

"My name is Kirito...I think..." The boy said in a confused voice.

"Okay, it seems you got some memories back now, Kirito-kun." The girl said in a cheerful voice.

_Kirito-kun? Sounds so familiar..._

"So what do I need to do now?" Kirito asked.

"Please wait a minute, sir." Eve #07 said.

Suddenly, the white spaces all around them recreated itself into some sort of a world. Buildings started rising up from the ground, trees and objects materialized out of nowhere. A blank white space above changed into a vast blue sky.

Kirito found himself arrived in some sort of a school ground.

"Congratulations, Kirito-kun. You've now arrived in Eden. Now, you can live in this world any way you wanted."

Kirito, still confused about the things that happened, asked Eve #07 again.

"Wait, what do any of these have to do with me? You still haven't answer my question! Why am I here? What is this world anyways?"

Eve #07, still maintained the friendly smile of hers, then explained.

"You are now one of the inhabitants inside the artificial world of Eden. It was created to perfectly simulated the everyday lives of humans. The purpose of its creation was to give people with disabilities in the real world, like you, a chance to do things a normal person can do. For example, a blind person could see the world again, or a person whose legs were amputated can walk freely again in this world."

Kirito thought about what she had said for a second

_So, that means my real body in the real world must've suffered some kind of brain damage, right? That's why I lost my memories._

"Do you have any more questions, sir?"

"Yeah, well. I've arrived in this world already, so what do I do now? Do I, get a new life or something? I don't know what to do in this world if I don't have a clue of what I should be doing." Kirito said.

Eve #07's smile faded a little.

"Of course, you can do anything you wanted, sir. Do you see that red building over there? That's the student dormitory. You can rent a new room for you to live during your stay in Eden. Meanwhile, you can act like any other teenage students do. Go to school, joining clubs, making friends, et cetara." The girl explained.

_So, I guess I'll stuck here for a while. _Kirito thought.

"After you've checked into your dorm room, there'll be a computer inside. You can check every progress you've made so far in this world beside using for entertainment or educational purposes. Also, if you have any questions regarding the state of your body in the real world, you can sent a message from the computer to the address I've added to your memory."

_Wait, what did she do to my brain?!_

Kirito thought about the address the girl gave him. It's strange when someone tampered with your head, and gives you a memory you don't remember having. It's like rewriting your brain...

But now, he doesn't care anymore.

"Ah, you mean that I should sent my message to...this guy, Cabal, right?"

_Who's Cabal anyways?_

"Yes, sir. Cabal is a codename we use to called the system overseer. He'll answer all of your questions." The girl said.

"Er, I think I understand that. Thanks for your help, anyways." Kirito said

"No problem, sir." Eve #07 said, before she disappeared.

Kirito stood still.

He has all the time he'd ever needed in this place. He can do anything he wanted to do. But it still felt strange. He doesn't have a purpose in this world. This wasn't his world, after all. He doesn't belong here, he doesn't want to be here...

But he's here, and nothing can change that fact right now.

_Right now, we're alive here, in Aincrad._

What. The. Hell.

Kirito grabbed his head. He felt like something is messing around in his brain cell.

_I remember that...I've said it before...somewhere...to someone..._

_Someone close to me..._

_Arrgg! I can't think of anything!_

Kirito felt so frustrated. He seems to remember something, yet it wasn't enough for him to know exactly what it is.

_No use thinking about it now._

He could stand here all day, trying to figure out why the hell is he here, but it wouldn't him any good. He will still stuck inside this place anyways until his real world body recovers.

_Time to find something to do._

And so, Kirito started walking toward the student dormitory.

Upon arriving at the dormitory, which is a red three-story building, Kirito was greeted by a young woman working at the front desk in the lobby, she have an orange hair and wearing a reading glasses.

"Good afternoon, young man. New arrival? I've never seen you before." She asked.

"Er, seems that way, miss..."

"Oh, sorry, my name is Sora Yagami, I'm the manager of this dorm. You can just call me Sora." The young woman said.

"Errr...okay, miss Sora. Do you happen to have any vacant room left?"

Sora checked her notebook for a while.

"You're pretty lucky, there's just only one vacant room left in this dorm, though you'll have to share your room with another boy."

_Shared rooms? Ah, well. It's still better than having no rooms of my own._

"Wait, how many students currently live here?"

Sora closed her notebook.

"From what I've heard. There's currently 52 people inside this world, and all of them lived here inside this dorm, except you, of course."

"Only 52 people? That's a tiny number for a world this large..."

"Hey, the world you're living in now is just an experimental world. It's not going on public yet, and the people chosen to live here are all desperate, disabled people who just wanted to have a chance at living normal lives, someone like _you_, and we're the minorities, remember that. We're just few useless people nobody wanted in the real world, so we have to settle for this." Sora stared at Kirito.

"I'm not disabled! I'm just...I just can't remember who I am." Kirito said miserably.

"Oh, another amnesiac boy? Don't worry, there's about four or five people who lost their real life memories just like you. You can find new friends here. Just...forget everything, forget every questions about your past. They'll only just make your life here worse. Trust me, you don't want that." Sora said kindly.

_Easy for you to say._ Kirito thought.

"You said that there's 52 real life people lived here at the present. That means I'm the latest person to have been brought into this world, right?"

"No, you're the 51st person to have arrived in this world. The 52nd person has just arrived, moments after you walked into this lobby. See for yourself." Sora pointed her finger at the front door. Kirito turned back and see another boy around his age walked into the lobby.

"Er, the AI outside, Eve or something, told me to come here to rent a dorm room. Are you by any chances the dorm manager?" The boy asked Sora.

"There, you've just met your roommate." Sora gave him a smile.

_What, him?_

"From now on, you two are going to share a room. Don't worry, there's no need to pay any rental fees, just behave yourselves and live happily inside this world. If you need any help, just call me anytime. Now, you two write your names in this notebook."

Kirito looked at the other boy, he was wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of black jeans.

"Er, you can write your name down first." Kirito told the boy.

"Ah, okay, thanks." The boy said before writing his name on the notebook.

Kirito looked at his name. _Shinji Osamu_.

After he finished writing his name, he turned to look at Kirito, before giving him a smile.

"So, guess we'll be living in the same room for a while, nice to meet you...er, what's your name?"

"I don't remember it either, amnesiac, no big deal. Just call me Kirito." Kirito said, before writing his name in the notebook.

"Er, that's not going to work, Kirito-kun." Sora looked at Kirito's name in her notebook.

"Every student must have surnames here, maybe you could think of something? Maybe just a random surname, anything is good enough."

Kirito thought about it for a second. _Is surnames really necessary?_

He then looked at the other names in the notebook, they were all written in full names.

_Ah, right, I'll do it, jeez._

Kirito thought about what to use for his surname for a bit. He started searching through his memories, what's left of them.

_Link Start!_

_If something happens, sent me a message._

_Not yet! Even faster!_

_I know a place that could be fun._

_Is this good enough?_

_It's over..._

_Welcome back, Asuna._

_Asuna?_

Somehow, the name Asuna meant something to Kirito...something...precious to him.

_Right now, we're alive here, in Aincrad._

He remember it now, those were the words he had said to Asuna...Asuna is, really, someone important to him.

Kirito then added his 'surname' next to his name in the notebook.

_Kirito Asuna_.

"So, Kirito Asuna? That sounds _so_ weird." Sora gave Kirito a curious look. "But it's unique, I like it."

_That's none of your business._ Kirito thought.

"Okay, you two can now get to your room. It's on the third floor to the west wing. Room 314. Everything you need is already in there, school clothes, standard casual clothes. If you needed anything else, there's the shopping distinct to the east of here. Just follow the road signs. Don't worry, you'll even find a sum of money, including your ATM cards, in your room for you two to begin your lives."

"Thank you, miss Sora." Kirito and Shinji gave thanks to Sora, before walking to their room on the third floor.

"So, er, why are you here?" Kirito asked Shinji.

"I was paralyzed from a train accident. The doctors said my body is beyond fixing, so my parents decided to sent me here. They said they wanted me to live a normal life again." Shinji said, his face looked somewhat depressed.

"But after everything that's happened, I don't really feel better to feel normal. I mean, is this even normal? All of these isn't real, right? Even if I go back, I'll just be a useless, broken man again. It's funny, right? Back then, I'll gladly give up anything to be able to walk again, but...this isn't what I had in mind at all...it's just...it's just doesn't feel right."

Kirito looked at him, trying to figure out something to say.

"You know, my mother always taught me; always make good use of what you have, because it's all you have. Maybe she's right, maybe this is all I have right now, there's no use whining about it. Maybe all I have is this fake life inside this godforsaken world."

"It's not fake..." Kirito finally said something.

"What?" Shinji asked confusingly.

"Your life, it's not fake at all. You're living your life in this world. Maybe it's not something you wanted, but at least you still got something, right?"

"How can you be so sure? You said it yourself that you lost your memories, right? Are you sure what you are right now is really you? Are you even sure it's not somebody else you're currently experiencing as?" Shinji protested.

"Well, it cannot get any worse than it is, right? Maybe I'm dead, maybe I don't even exist in the real world. Maybe I'm merely an error in this artificial world, but I don't care. I'm still me, I'm still here, and I'm not fake, nothing could've change that." Kirito said.

They both stopped walking.

"...You're weird guy, Kirito."

"Believe me, I could hardly believe myself either. I'm not even sure who I really am. But who cares!" Kirito smiled.

Shinji finally laughed.

"...You're really, really weird guy, Kirito, but you made me feel better, thanks."

"It's nothing at all."

After some more walking, they finally arrived at their room. Room 314.

"You first" Shinji said to Kirito.

Kirito placed his hand on the door handle, before finally open it.

* * *

**Editor's note: Okay, I know it's very weird to use **_**Asuna**_** as Kirito's surname, but, why shouldn't I? LOL! Besides, it's to symbolize that even with amnesiac, he still remembers Asuna. Now, that's some sweet love! **

**In this chapter, I've introduce three OCs, all of whom will be having somewhat major roles in the future chapters. The first is Sora Yagami, whose name is based on Sora Takenouchi and Taichi Yagami, both are the main characters of Digimon Adventure. To say, it's one of the earliest stories about people-got-stuck-inside-computers-fighting-for-their-dear-lives, sort of like SAO. I choose Sora because she's a very kind, loving person, sort of like a mother-figure to the rest of the team, and that's why she's the dorm manager in my story, and the last name Yagami comes from Taichi Yagami, simply because I support this pairing. :) The second OC is Shinji Osamu, Kirito's newfound friend in the world of Eden. Shinji's name is, of course, comes from Shinji Ikari, the main male lead of the (in)famous Neon Genesis Evangelion, who's having a **_**serious**_** identity problem because of the events that unfold around him. He's not ready to face them, but had no choice but to go on anyways, and that will be the personality of Shinji in my story. His surname Osamu, comes from Tezuka Osamu, the legendary manga artist who've often considered to be "Japanese's own Walt Disney" His works have been known to have revolutionize Japanese cartoons during his time. The third is Hideo Akihiko, son of the notorious creator of SAO, Kayaba Akihiko. Hideo's name is based on Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, which is famous for its twisted plot and mind screws.**

**So, what do you think about this chapter? I admit, I'm not really used to write third-person stories at all, so there might be change on future chapters. **


	3. Revelations

Chapter III: Revelations

"What do you mean it's an accident!? You clearly dropped that box on my head!" Naoi Ayato shouted.

"Alright, alright. I did it. I'm sorry, damn it! How long are you gonna whine about it!?" Hinata Hideaki, who's wearing a baseball uniform, said in an annoyed voice.

"Oi, Hinata! You're late for practice! Let's go already!" Somebody shouted.

"Coming!" Hinata shouted back.

"You're not going anywhere, you brat! You're coming with me! You and your SSS friends has been doing quite a few mess lately! That stunt you pulled at the concert is one thing!" Naoi said.

"Hang on a second, who do you think you are!"

"Me, you don't know _me_?!" The green-haired boy exclaimed in a very surprised voice.

"I'm Naoi Ayato, the most magnificent and most excellent student of Saisei High School! You lowlifes can only imagine to match my perfect intellect! Most of all, I'm the vice president of the Student Council at this school! Everyone but the student president must obey my command! Even you!" Naoi describes himself in a very proud voice.

"Everyone? Does that include teachers and your parents? Wow, I'm amazed." Hinata said in a mischievous voice.

"I didn't mean it literally, damn you! Now, will you just follow me already!" Naoi was careless for only a second, his eyes were closed during his speech, he didn't even realized that Hinata was already gone.

"Wait, where the heck are you! Come back! Damn it! You're getting a detention for this!" Naoi, finally realized that his target was gone, running quickly out of the classroom to find him.

This was just another normal day at school for Yuzuru Otonashi, who observed the situation of the two boys from his seat near the window.

It was already two weeks since he arrived back in the real world.

After meeting with Kanade again. He seemed to have remember everything during his time in the Afterlife. He also meet his friends again, who've all ended up in Saisei High School. From what he've learned, the Saisei High School is a school which has been created specifically for Project Afterlife participants, something he found similar to that _other _school related to virtual world inhabitants.

_So, they weren't really dead, after all._

If they're already dead in their past lives, then met each other in the Afterlife. There's just a million-to-one chance for them to meet again when they're reborn into a new world. If the next world really existed at all.

But here he was, meeting each and every of his friends from the Afterlife, and the coincidence that they're all live very near to each other is simply because they went to the same school, the appropriately named Saisei High School. It didn't take very long for him to get along with the 'SSS' again, seeing that technically he already knew all of them.

Yuzuru started thinking back about the day he met Kanade in the real world.

* * *

"Yuzuru...kun?" The white-haired girl exclaimed in surprise, after seeing the boy in front of her.

"It's you...it's really you, isn't it? You're Kanade, right?" Yuzuru asked, his face was full of joy.

"Ye...yes...I'm Kanade...Kanade Tachibana."

That was all the answer he needed.

Yuzuru hugged her, as tightly as possible, not caring about other curious people who stared at them. She hugged him back, tears and smiles on their faces.

"Kanade...I love you. I've missed you so much. Don't leave me again...promise me."

Kanade stood silent, but nodded in response. Her face was full of happiness.

"...I...I promise...Yuzuru." Kanade finally managed to say something.

They both hugged for about a minute before releasing. After that, Yuzuru and Kanade walked home together.

* * *

"...Are you joking me?" Yuzuru couldn't believe what he has just heard.

"It's true, Yuzuru. At first I didn't realized it, too, but I'm the system supervisor of Project Afterlife. "

_Guess that's why she had those superhuman abilities, the Angel Player, maybe even the whole Afterlife World was her creation...her ideas about the world she never had a chance to experience. A simple teenage school life._

_God really do exists...albeit an artificial one..._

"It all happened around three years ago. My father is one of the programmers who helped design the Afterlife World, and he wanted me to be one of its testers. At first I didn't want that, because I'm satisfied with my life in the real world. Then, the accident happened. I was in coma, dying of severe blood lost and damage to my heart. I was barely kept alive by the artificial heart, though it can't help me forever. At the same time, my mind was transferred into this world." Kanade explained, her eyes filled with sadness.

"It took the doctors three months to find a new heart for me, it was yours. Even though you died, you did your best to help everyone. The world couldn't ask for a better man than you, Yuzuru..."

Yuzuru started thinking back about the day he died in that tunnel.

_So, that explains why she was in that world before I did._

_But...if she got my heart, then why was she still in that world? She should be healed!_

"But why were you still in that world, Kanade? Didn't my donor heart saved you?"

"It did, Yuzuru, but not only my heart was damaged, the accident cost me my mind as well. It was broken, and nothing could've replaced it except to let it healed over time."

"I was trapped in there, living day by day in an unfamiliar world, yet it was the world that I've always dreamed of. A world of chances, a chance to do something right, a chance to fix something wrong, a chance to become something new..."

"And so, with my status as the daughter of one of the head programmers, I was granted access to the Ability Enhancement Program, or, as the SSS called it, the Angel Player. I used it to become the Student Council President to keep peace and order in that world, and also a chance to get some more friends. But I was too late to find out that all of my friends, all of them, logged out after they finally got to do everything they wanted to do, you could say they 'passed on'."

"I was alone again, with no real friends. I had no contact with anyone I know in the outside world, which I later learned that they didn't want the secrets about the project to be revealed to the people inside the world. Being alone is one of the reasons I choose Naoi-san to be my assistant in that world. Like me, he was unable to move on due to his tragic past and was forced to live his life on his own, yet he was determined, always doing his best at his job."

"Soon, I found some friends in the SSS, your friends. Back then, they hated me. They thought that they've died for real in the real world and now they're living in some sort of purgatory where I was a ruler. A servant of god, as they've called me back then. Them, like me and Naoi-san, are also unable to move on. Even though their bodies and their minds are completely healed, they refused to be logged out, refused to move on. They wanted to find someone to blame for all the bad things that happened in their lives. For two years I remained in there, with nothing else to do than to maintain the world's balance." Suddenly, Kanade showed a slight smile.

"And then you arrived. I still remember it..." Kanade then giggled a little.

"I remember killing you the night you arrived." She burst into laughter.

"Hey, not funny! That hurt like hell, you know!" Yuzuru cried out.

"Sorry! Sorry! Yuzuru! I was just, it was just one of my great memories about you." Kanade stopped laughing, before reverting to just a simple, happy smile.

"Didn't you remember? I told you that when my blade stabbed into your body, I realized that instant that _you_ are the person that saved me. _You_ are the one that gave me your heart..."

"Since you arrived, you changed everything. From the SSS's altitude toward me, saving Naoi from his despair, and...and...giving me a chance to make some real friends, at long last..." Kanade's face saddened again.

"I admitted, I was on the verge of breaking down back then. It was just too tired, too tired to look after this world on my own. Even with the SSS to give me some challenges once in a while, it was still tired. I was tired from all of that. After you arrived and make the SSS to become friends with me, I let all of that go. I don't want to be the world keeper anymore. But my personality developed its own conscious. A glitch in the program that I didn't realize before. Before I knew it, they kidnapped me, my clones, who's still loyal to the task given to me, to maintain the world's balance."

"But the SSS saved me, you and Yuri saved me. I can't believe it that after all that fighting between me and her, she'll consider me my friend. I guess that she's sorry for all the pranks she did on me, but that's just my imagination..."

"After that, you continue to look out for your friends, helping them to move on. I observed you and Hinata helped that young girl Yui to achieve what she could only dreamed of in the real world, helping her to 'move on' and accept the real life."

"But even after all we've gone through, there's one obstacle ahead of us, the Shadows."

Yuzuru remembered, the Shadows. Those mindless monsters from nowhere created from the grieves of one mad programmer.

"Long before I arrived in that world, there were two disabled lovers, who were chosen to be the first participants of Project Afterlife during its beta stage. They were the first people who arrived in that world. From then, they lived happily inside that artificial world, until the woman died because of a system error that accidentally shut off the woman's life support..."

Kanade's saddened eyes stared off to the distance, where the sun is starting to set.

"The man cannot believe it, he refused to accept that the woman he loved was gone. He believed that she just moved on, and was desperate to see her again. For some reasons, he cannot log out from that world. Time passed and passed until he finally went insane, and turned himself into an NPC, but not before rewriting the program codes for the NPCs that lived in that world. Unbeknownst to us, he successfully created the 'Reset Program'. A program which purpose is to reset the Afterlife to its beginning state, removing any traces of the old world. From what I learned from Yuri before we parted away, the 'Programmer', his avatar whom she met while infiltrating the Guild, was created to be the catalyst for his plan. The Programmer told that the man who created him hated this world, for he could not escape the pain of losing the woman he loved, even though he was promised that this was the world where they could start a new life together. And so, he programmed the codes so that when there is a certain amount of love in that world, the 'Reset Program' will be triggered and the NPCs will transformed into Shadows to clean the world of humans, thereby eliminating all traces of what he despises so much, love."

"But Yuri managed to defeat him and put a stop to this mad plan, although at the cost of everyone in the Afterlife. They've successfully manage to overcome their weaknesses and moved on to the real world. Only a few people stayed after the Shadow Incident ended, the five of us who stayed for the Graduation Party, and after that, even us were gone, too..."

Kanade's voice started to tremble.

"But...I didn't want to go away. After two years of happiness when I'm with you, finally making some friends and be content with my miserable life. After I fell in love with _you_, I just didn't want to go away, but Project Afterlife has served its purpose, there was no reason for us to continue to exist in that world. I later learned the reason they shut down Project Afterlife is because it was flawed, its loops were exploited and almost cost the lives of all the people living inside there. So, when everyone logged out, there was no reason for that world to continue to exist."

"And so, I said my farewells to you...I'm sorry if I broke your heart...Yuzuru..." Kanade, finally finished explaining the truths about Afterlife, then started crying.

"I...I thought I was never going to see you again...I thought I lost you forever...I'm sorry for lying to you..."

_What a poor girl. _Yuzuru thought, Kanade's life is nothing but one bad situation to another.

He did the only thing he could, he hugged her.

"I'm right here, Kanade. I'll never let you go again..."

Kanade's crying is now reduced to just some sobbing.

"Th...Thank you...Yuzuru...Thank you for loving me..."

* * *

Hatsune was clearly _not_ happy when Yuzuru got home. He was supposed to got here before 19.00, yet it is now 20.30 when he showed up at the front door.

"Where the heck have you been, brother?"

Yuzuru looked at her, he was not happy, either.

"You are not my sister..."

Hatsune was stunned.

"My sister...my real sister...she's dead...I've visited her grave today. It is still in the same place as it was four years ago..." Yuzuru lifted his face up, his face was covered in tears.

"So, who the hell are you! And why do you look like my sister!" His voice sounded pained. To think that the only close relative he'd ever have is only a clone of the _real_ one who's already gone, it's too much painful.

After the conversation with Kanade, Yuzuru slowly realized that if he happens to arrive in that world and still retained his memories in real life, then _everything _that happened to him in both Afterlife and this world happened for real...

Even the death of his terminally ill sister.

Hatsune, no, the girl who looks like Hatsune, remained silent, unable to say anything.

"Are...are you a machine? Some kind of an artificial human? Are you even an alien? Why the heck do you act so much like my sister!"

"Enough! Yuzuru!" Hatsune cried out.

"Yes, I'm just a clone! Created to resemble your sister so you can feel comfortable while adapting to the real world!" Hatsune shouted at him, her voice sounds so angry, yet so sad.

"I...I was created, based on your memories of your sister, to mimic her likeness, while you were still inside that world. I was created with one purpose only; to be _your sister_, damn it! I didn't expect you to learn the truth so quickly!"

"But you're not my sister..." Yuzuru, still confused, said in an eerily voice.

"Hell freaking yes, I'm not! Your sister is dead! I'm just a fake! So what!? I'm here to make you feel happy, but I failed...I...I..." Hatsune's eyes became widen as she comes to a realization.

Then she broke down, hard. She curled up on the floor, eyes widen, hands over her teary face.

"...I...I cannot make you happy...I...I failed my task...I don't have a purpose anymore...might as well...kill...me right now, Yuzuru..." Hatsune cried very hard, her breakdown and expressions made her feel so...human...

"...I'm just a tool, Yuzuru. I can be replaced...maybe other...other Hatsunes...will make you feel happier..."

Yuzuru walked up to her. He had never seen an artificial human, no, let alone real people...being so emotional before.

_She's in pain...and it's all my fault..._

"Please...end me now...I don't deserve to exist anymore..."

Yuzuru did the unthinkable, he slapped her.

"Stop saying that!" Yuzuru shouted. then hugged Hatsune as tightly as he could.

"You aren't my sister, but that doesn't mean you can't be her! Maybe you're just a clone, maybe you can't make me happy, but it's not your fault! Damn it! I can't get my sister back, but that doesn't mean I should give up _you_!"

Hatsune looked up to Yuzuru's face, he was smiling, a heartwarming smile.

"You _are _my sister, even if you're not real. You tried your best to keep me happy, I was just a jerk for not accepting it...just because it's not real..." Yuzuru's voice trembled, he was crying, too.

"So what if it's not real!? So what if I can't get my sister back!? I still have you, and that's the best thing I could've ask for..."

"For all I care, you are now my sister, Hatsune...don't...don't...blame yourself again..."

Hatsune stopped crying, she looked at Yuzuru's face.

"...Brother...brother...you idiot...I...love...you..."

And then she hugged him again, this time tears of joy flow through her faces.

Even if these tears are fake, the emotions are real...

* * *

"Otonashi! Hey! Do you even hear me!?" Hinata's voice reached his ear, bringing him back to reality after a moment of reminiscence.

"Yo! Man! What's up with ya! Buddy!" TK, the hip-hop SSS guy, asked Yuzuru.

Apparently, except him and Kanade, no one else seems to remember their experiences in the Afterlife World. From what Kanade said, a memory rewrite is necessary to prevent information leaks about Project Afterlife. After _that _incident two years ago, virtual reality experiments on humans are considered international crimes, and severe punishments await those who violates it. So, had it not been under the protection of the Japanese Government, Project Afterlife could be considered an illegal operation. The participants' relatives were given specific personal trainings to act like nothing has happened within the past two years, even artificial humans, like Hatsune, was created to convince them that they've been living their lives normally, that Project Afterlife never existed.

"Have you heard the news? There's a new student here today!" Hinata said excitingly.

"I heard it's a girl. A very cute girl, too!" Ooyama, Hinata's friend, joined the conversation.

"Hah, don't mess with her, rumors said that she's one crazy bit-" Fujimaki, another SSS member said, but was interrupted by Yuri Nakamura.

"Don't badmouth the new girl like that, you idiot!" Yuri said after punching Fujimaki out of the way.

"How shallow-minded..." Shiina, the weird girl in the SSS, said in a bored voice.

"Hey, this is supposed to be a man-only conversation!" Fujimaki protested, which earned him another punch from Yuri.

"From what I've heard, she used to be in coma for two years..." Matsushita, another SSS with a large build, told the group.

"I wonder what happened to her..." Takamatsu, an SSS with a very muscular build who's doing push-ups shirtless at the back of the class, shouted up.

"Don't you guys remember!? That incident two years ago!" Yuri said.

"Wait, what incident?" Noda, another SSS, who is known to have a crush on Yuri since the Afterlife, asked.

"The Sword Art Online Incident. Don't you remember? Thousands of people got trapped inside that game! And almost half of them didn't get out! It made the front page of every newspapers in the world, and you don't know?! I can't believe you guys..." Yuri facepalmed herself.

"The teacher is coming! Everyone get to your seats!" Kanade, who arrived into the class, announced to the students.

The teacher then walked in, along with another female student. She has a long brown-orange hair and hazel eyes.

"Good afternoon, students! Today, a new student will join our class. She's a transfer student from the special school for Sword Art Online Incident victims."

_Sword Art Online victim?_

The girl walked in front of the class before introducing herself.

"Hello everyone! My name is Yuuki Asuna, nice to meet all of you!"

* * *

**Editor's Note: Finally, this chapter has been rewritten. Some of the dialogues have changed and most of the Angel Beats! character now acknowledge the events in SAO. I've also decided that in the next chapters, the story will be narrated in first person, swapped between one chapter for Kirito, and one chapter for Yuzuru. The reason for this is because I find it rather difficult to explain every minor details in third person, and I'm not really that experienced writer yet...**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	4. IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT! READ THIS! THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS WILL BE REWRITTEN!

Okay, I've written three chapters so far when I realized that I messed up the timeline from both Angel Beats! and SAO worlds, so I figured something out and made a new timeline, which will resulted in the rewriting of two chapters, mainly chapter 3 and some of chapter 1.

**Timeline**

0 years (start) 

Kirito trapped in SAO.

Project Afterlife began. Some times later, Kanade entered Project Afterlife, Hatsune died from cancer.

Kirito 14 years old, Asuna 15 years old, Yuzuru & SSS members 14-15 years old, Hideo Akihiko 15 years old.

2 years

Kirito escaped, Alfheim Arc., Asuna rescued from Nobuyuki Sugou.

Train accident, Yuzuru entered Project Afterlife.

Kirito 16 years old, Asuna 17 years old, Yuzuru & SSS members, 16-17 years old, Hideo Akihiko 17 years old.

4 years (Project Rebirth)

GGO and Alicization arc. ended, Kirito entered Project Rebirth.

The SSS logged out from Afterlife and returned to real world.

Kirito 18 years old, Asuna 19 years old, Yuzuru & SSS members, 18-19 years old, Hideo Akihiko 19 years old.

As mentioned above, I've made a time inconsistency when I first described the SSS's experiences inside Project Afterlife as four years, which means they went to the Afterlife at the same time as the SAO Incident, which means I've accidentally made Yuzuru, the SSS's age when they logged out at 21 years old, far older than I first imagined, and far too old for them to still be studying in high school. So, using the SAO timeline table on the swordartonlinewikia . com. I've created a new timeline to match the SAO timeline to the Angel Beats! timeline without making too much age differences (and also illogical) to the main characters.

As for Asuna, she's one of the SAO victims, which was described at the end of Fairy Dance arc. that when they were released from that world, there was a special school for them. That means that even at the age of 19, she's still learning in high school, albeit at the last year before she graduated and continue on to university. Twelfth Grade, to be precise. The same goes for Yuzuru and the SSS, who also went to the special school for them, which I named the Saisei High School. They're all in their final years in high school, as Yuzuru, who is already studying to become a doctor, will graduate (for real) this year.

Hatsune, Yuzuru's sister, died some times during the SAO incident, which motivated Yuzuru into studying to become a doctor, but nearing the conclusion of SAO, Yuzuru got into a train accident which cost him his life, and bought him to Project Afterlife. Two years was spent inside that world, with Yuzuru meeting Kanade, the rest of SSS and have adventures together in that world. After the Shadow Incident, Project Afterlife was shut down, and all remaining participants of the project returned to the real world, at almost the same time as Kirito got into Project Rebirth.

And Hideo Akihiko, one of my OCs, is now mysteriously 19 years old. After numerous reconsideration, I've decided that 19 years old will be his logical age, not too young for a son of a computer genius, who's also a computer prodigy himself, to create his own virtual world, right? That means Hideo's father, Kayaba, died at the age of 39 instead of 38 during the events of SAO. Hideo was 15 years old during that time, and after 4 years passed, he's 19 in my story. As old as any of the main characters. He used the technologies from his father to create his own version of a virtual world, the first being Project Afterlife, a high school-setting for the disabled or traumatized teenagers. The second being Project Rebirth, which was developed alongside Project Afterlife, but was completed later.

Due to these changes, some chapters will be rewritten, mainly chapter 1 & 3. I'm sorry for all these timeline mistakes, and I promised to be more careful in the future. Thank you all readers for reading and reviewing this story. It means a lot to me and gives me the motivation to continue making new stories for animes I loved. Sword Art Online and Angel Beats!


	5. The Perfect Imperfect World

It has been two weeks since I arrived in this world.

This world, this artificial world. 'Eden', they called it. The wonderland for people who don't have their places in the real world, the sanctuary for society outcasts.

Such an appropriate name for a perfect world like this, too perfect for us imperfects to live in...

Me? Well, my name is Kirito Asuna, or as what's left of my memories recalled.

I've been called Kirito _once_, you know what? It was just...it meant something to me when somebody called me Kirito, and Asuna, yeah, the name meant something to me as well, something that made me realize that I'm still me, and not some ghost in this shell of a stranger who happens to look like me.

Hell, I'm not even sure if my real body looks like that or not.

In the end, it doesn't matter how they choose to call me, but what matters is that I'm trapped inside this world.

It's just two weeks, and I felt like years have already passed.

It's not boring, to say at least. Let's just say it's your typical normal world, where you live your everyday lives, go to school, hang out with my friends, wander around the place.

But I can't help but feeling that there's something strange within this world.

It's not a world born of nature, nor from the will of god. It's a world created by the minds of men.

Kinda ironic, right? A world created from men's minds, for men's minds to live in.

That's why it feels so strange living inside this place.

It's like, our minds are not our own, just imaginations created by computer codes, which is, of course, need somebody to monitor their progresses.

But alas, nothing can help it. As long as my memory's still gone, I can't remember for exactly about what forced me into this state in the first place, and for the time being, complaining about unfamiliar life can't help change anything for the better...

The only connection between me and my lost memories...is my 'supposed' surname, Asuna.

I've been dreaming lately.

In all of these dreams, there would be a young girl, probably my age. She has a beautiful long orange-brown hair, and every time I saw her in my dreams, she will give me a smile...the most beautiful smile I've ever seen...like an angel's.

I guess she's Asuna. The girl of the dream world.

Who could've know you could dream within an artificial world? I mean, you're already sleeping, living in a 'dream' world, where you sleeps, and dreams again. Kinda funny. Not that I'm complaining, though.

...

Guess I better start my new day now.

* * *

At last, it's Friday. After hours of pure math class torture, the school's finally ended.

"Oi, Kirito! Let's go to the park today!" Shinji Osamu, my new friend in this world, called me.

Although technically, he should be calling me Asuna-san, but I found it VERY weird and embarrassing after two or three times he called me by that name, so I insisted him to call me Kirito instead. It actually sounds cooler, too.

"Again? But we just went to the park the other day!" I protested, this is the fifth time since we came here that he asked me to go to the park with him. There's a local skateboard club over there, and Shinji seems to enjoy his time there.

"Hey! When you can't even riding a wheelchair back home, there's nothing like the feeling of riding a skateboard down those tricky curves!" Shinji said.

Well, it's true for him. He told me that his body was paralyzed in the real world so he got no chance to do something normal like most teenagers his age. Come to think of it, he deserved to be finally given a chance he longed for, to do something he could never do in the real world.

"...Alright. Since it's weekend tomorrow, I'll go with you, but for the last time this week, okay?" I said. Shinji just nodded.

"Right, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The park seems less crowded, considered that tomorrow's weekend, more people should be here.

Oh, right. I almost forgot that there's more than 80 people inside the world of Eden right now. Since I and Shinji arrived at this world, another 20 or more people around our ages joined us in this world, excluding Miss Sora, my dorm manager. From what I've learned, she volunteered to be one of the 'Keepers' inside this world, taking care her everyday tasks given by her superiors in the real world.

"You can't just leave these kids alone with no one to interact with except those NPCs, right? That's why I'm here. There are about a couple dozen people like me who's working inside this world. Just, you know, taking care of you guys. It's kinda fun here. Back in the real world, I'm an assistant for my husband who's an ambassador, so I kind of enjoying management jobs. Working as a dorm manager here gave me some new experiences." Sora said to me once before.

With just a few people inside this world, it's understandable if not all of them would just went to the park after a long day of work.

And thus, two hours was wasted (well, at least for me) at that damned skateboard park.

I can't really find skateboarding my type of sport, even though I was pretty good at it. I mostly enjoy something more 'straightforward'. That's probably why I enjoyed practicing kendo or any other martial art activities at school.

* * *

A day later, which is Saturday, I went to the school to practice Kendo.

"Come on, you need to concentrate more, Kirito-kun!" Teacher Masato, who's my kendo teacher (and one of the 'Keepers' like Miss Sora), scolded me after I failed spectacularly in one of the practices.

"Seriously, just what do you think you're doing when you pulled off that stance? There's no such stance in Kendo! Even though you fought very well, that stance gave you too much openings for your opponents to exploit. And your fighting style, while effective, clearly focused too much on the offensive. Successful Kendo practitioners must balance between offense and defense, and that is why you lost the last time we fought. You outright charged at me leaving your sides opened, and you even try to use another shinai* which doesn't _exist_. This isn't some video game, you know? And there's..."

After fifteen minutes of torture with Masato lecturing me about my unorthodox fighting style, I find myself in the school's library after the practice.

Really, I can't explain it myself, but I found that every time I tried to start practicing Kendo, I ended up pulled a very weird stance. Instead of holding the shinai firmly with two hands at the front, I use my right hand to hold the stick backwards, leaving my front totally exposed to my opponent, and I fight with extreme aggressive offense, something that even the most experience Kendo practitioner wouldn't dare to do. It's also true when Masato said that I tried to use the nonexistent second shinai. Come to think of it, it must've been pretty embarrassing...

Of course, despite giving my opponents some challenges, they eventually beaten me due to them exploiting the openings in my style.

It's weird, _real _weird. Even though it's a wrong style, I use it like a habit. I can't shake the feeling that I once used it before. Many would say it's probably the effects of muscle memory. When you do something regularly and grow experienced of it, you could do them like a habit, even unconsciously.

If that's true, then I wondered where and when did I learn such fighting style myself.

I lost all of my memories before entering Eden, so I can't figure out some of the weird behaviors I've been doing or thinking. They don't really affect my everyday lives much, but it still give me a chilling feeling.

_So I DID have a past. I really did something in my past, right?_

* * *

I still can't figure out why the hell am I inside the school's library, of all places, on weekends.

It's not like I have a homework that needs those books in the library, and even if I did, I could just use the internet to find something I want.

Really, I was just trying to find some way to kill my time.

Apart from Kendo and some other sports, there's not really much to do for me in this place.

But books? Seriously.

What's wrong with me...

* * *

_"...and so, the era of the Three Kingdoms has finally come to an end. After more than ninety years of chaos, China was finally reunited under the Jin Dynasty, and peace has returned to the land..."_

Ah, so after all that bloody fighting between Wei, Wu and Shu. After so much death and destruction from the three factions, the winner turns out to be Jin. Great job, China.

Really, I find it weird someone would find Romance of the Three Kingdoms interesting. Don't get me wrong, the story itself is quite amazing, and all those plots and tricks the three factions played on each other are brilliant and exciting. Overall it was exciting to read and has quite a few great idioms. I'll admit I kinda admired Zhuge Liang's masterful art of deceptions, Cao Cao and his 'Father of his men' altitude.

Yet in the end, all of them were for nothing. There was no winner among them. The kingdoms they spent many decades to build were gone because of some incompetent emperors and corrupt officials, and the peace that followed didn't even last a decade! What's the point of all that fighting if in the end it didn't make anything better?

Great, now I'm starting to sound like my history teacher.

Anyways, I was about to go home when I noticed one book left on the nearby table.

I grabbed it up and looked at the book's cover.

_The (Mis)Adventures of Chafe Filth the Great_

What the heck...

What kind of title was that?

The book's cover is nothing special, just a hard cover book with pictures of a cartoon-like character, who despite wearing full medieval knight era armor, still look completely ridiculous because of his ugly face. Who's this Chafe Filth anyways? From the looks of him, he appeared to be some kind of a French royal knight, yet with a name like that?

I look at the writer's name.

_Daniel A. Wells_

Never heard of him.

At any rate, I can't just let it stay on the table. There's no one around except one old lady who's the librarian.

"Excuse me, ma'am. I found this book on the table. Do you know which shelf I could return it to?" I asked her.

The librarian examined it for a while, including checking the book database on her computer, and gave me a curious look.

"I've never seen this book before, young man. I'm quite sure this book doesn't belong in this library. There's no book code on the cover and it wasn't listed in the library's database either. Somebody must've bought it here and forgot to take it home. You could keep it, if you like. There's more than enough books here already."

"Ah, thank you, ma'am."

She gave me a smile in return.

* * *

So, here I am, with this weird book, walking home in the sunset near the local baseball court.

"Hey! Kirito!" Somebody called out to me from the baseball court.

I turned to look, and saw Shinji waving to me.

"Want to play baseball with us?" He shouted at me.

"Nah, I'm beat today. Maybe later!" I shouted back.

Shinji gave me a somewhat disappointed look, but really, he doesn't think much of it. I've been doing this several times already until he finally understood that I'm not really into social stuffs.

"It's alright. Don't mind us. I'll see you at the dorm later!" And then he goes back to his game.

Ten more minutes passed, it's getting dark now. I decided to take a shortcut through the alley to cut straight to the dorm.

The dorm's front door is directly in front of me...as well as a mysterious hooded man.

_What the hell?_

The mysterious man looked at me.

"So, you're finally here!" He said.

"Took you long enough. I was wondering you've taken a wrong turn or got lost somewhere, or _worse_."

"What are you talking about? Who are you!?" I looked at the man, he's somewhat taller than me and has a dark-brown skin as well as blonde hair. Judging from outward appearance, I'd say he's some American Hip-hop guy.

"First off, kid. Names aren't important in this world. Second, why don't you be a good boy and _shut up_?" He glared at me.

_Who do you think you are, telling me to shut up?!_

The mysterious man then approached me slowly.

"Alright, that's better. Now, listen to me carefully. You're in danger."

_What?_

"Don't ask anything yet, just listen. This world is not like what it seems. First of all, I need to get you to somewhere safe. You can't trust anyone, okay?"

"Are...are you serious?" I asked nervously.

If this is some kind of joke, it's not funny at all.

The mysterious man then walked away a little bit, his back turned to me.

"So, what's ya name, kid?" He asked, his face turned back to face me.

"Tell me yours, first." I said.

"Damn it, I ain't got time for this! Right! Right! You can tell me later!" He shook his head.

"So, do you know how to shoot a gun, kid?"

_Wha!?_

"I...you...what?"

Did I just hear that right?! He just asked me if I could use..._a gun_?

"Ah, great. Just what I needed. Don't panic, okay? Just trust me." He slowly turned back to face me.

It was only until too late that I saw what's in his hand.

_A gun._

He pointed it at me, and shoot.

* * *

**Editor's note: Another cliffhanger! LOL! I just love cliffhangers, you know. **

**Anyways, sorry for the long update. I've been pretty busy the past few weeks. Don't worry, I already got the story in mind, I'll just have to figure out how to narrate them properly...**

**As you can see, in this chapter, I've switched back to the first-person view narration. I found that doing stories in third-person view is not my preferred method. The next chapter will also switched to Yuzuru's POV, before switching back to Kirito's in the next-next chapter. (LOL)**

**Stay tuned on the next chapter!**

_*Shinai is _Japanese for the wooden stick used in Kendo.


	6. Underground Metropolis

Okay, I'm _not _gonna repeat all of these again, so listen to my story carefully.

_Stop. Playing. Online. Games._

It'll ruin your life, trust me.

Should I need to explain more? You should get the picture now, after all that's happened since four years ago.

Still don't get it? Well, allow me to tell you about how _I _almost get myself killed.

By online games, no less!

Well, it seems to be at first, anyways.

Do NOT try this at home.

* * *

It all happened three days ago.

My name is Yuzuru Otonashi, although if you're following the story closely, you should know it by now. Damn you, you incompetent narrator! You made me seem like an idiot during the first chapters! If you're going to tell the story in third-person, at least you should ask about MY point of view, first!

Good thing you finally let me do the talking. About damn time.

Like I said, if you're following the story closely, you'll noticed that my class now has a new student here.

And not just any ordinary student. She's a shell-shocked survivor.

A veteran from the infamous Sword Art Online by the name of Yuuki Asuna...

From the outside, she looked just like any other ordinary everyday students. If I didn't know that she's a transfer student from a special school for SAO Victims, I'll probably think that she's just a young lady from a rich family. (Saisei High School is somewhat an elite school in itself, all students here are either rich or extremely intelligent, sometimes both) At any rate, despite all the horrid rumors I heard about what Sword Art Online done to its victims (and for Asuna, it didn't end there), she still remained in high-spirit. Eventually, she's popular with the whole class, even some of my SSS friends came to respect her, particularly Yuri and Iwasawa.

"I can't believe you actually got kidnapped by that sadist bastard and not giving in to him! And that's even just AFTER you got out of SAO!? That took some courage, you know!?" Yuri said excitingly, after Asuna told her about her experience after SAO, where she got kidnapped, along with 299 others, by Nobuyuki Sugou inside another game called Alfheim Online, where she was a captive to be abused by Nobuyuki himself.

"I was terrified at first, yeah. That bastard tried to force me to be his pleasure slave. But I didn't give up hope. I resisted his advance and fight him to the very end."

"Speaking of hope, isn't that guy, the black-haired dude, hero of SAO, saved you?" Iwasawa asked.

"Yeah, he was the reason everyone of us could be here. He never gave up on his friends, and will do anything in his power to make sure all of us can have a tomorrow." Asuna said, with a little smile on her face.

"So where is he now? Isn't he should be here with you?" I joined the conversation.

"He...he's..." Asuna mumbled something while making a somewhat sad face. I could tell she's clearly not comfortable to talk about it.

"Hey, hey. I'm sorry for asking. It's alright if you don't want to tell us. If he means a lot to you, then it's a good thing. You can't find a good man who would risk his life for his friends like that every day." I told her.

"Thank you...Otonashi...san." Asuna said.

"If you have any problems regarding life in this new school, you can ask us for help anytime, Asuna-chan. We SSS always help other students." Kanade, who's our class representative, joined the conversation.

"Yea...yeah. Thank you so much, everyone!" Asuna smiled, which made everyone happy.

After three more hours, school day's finally ended. I was about to pack my things and go home when somebody burst into the classroom.

It was Naoi, the not-so-friendly (except to me) Vice President of the Student Council.

"Oi! Otonashi! You too, Yuri! Actually, all of you SSS come down here now! Asuna-san said she wanted to meet you all at the school gate. She said it's an emergency!"

I quickly grabbed my bag and went down, with the rest of the SSS followed me in suit.

At the school gate, I found Asuna with five other people. There were two guys, one is an adult with a dark-brown skin and a strong build body, another is a young man, probably a college student. He wore a red bandana around his head, which I found somewhat funny, yet I admit it pretty suited him.

The other three are all girls.

One was a young woman with brown hair with a pair of white hairpins. The other was a little girl who seems younger than others. She has a light-brown twin tail hair with red bows. The last girl has a short black hair and dark grey eyes, and a somewhat...more developed...chest sizes than the other girls, even Asuna herself. (Hey, don't blame me! My hormones' just doing its job!)

"Hey guys! I'd like you to meet my friends from SAO!" Asuna said.

"Nice to meet you guys!" The girl with brown hair said happily.

"So Asuna, this is the new school you've transferred to?" The guy with a red bandana said.

"Yeah. It's pretty nice, actually. Everyone here is friendly to me, and...it's way closer to _that place_ than the old school..." Asuna said like normal, but I noticed that her face looked saddened.

"So, I guess you guys must be Asuna's new friends here, right?" The man with a dark-brown skin asked us. Normally, his tall appearance looked somewhat scary, but he looked very friendly to us.

"Yeah, we've been studying together for three days now, and have been getting along nicely." Yuri said with a smile on her face.

"That's great! Anyone who's Asuna's friend's also our friend!" A young little girl with a twin tail said cheerfully.

While everyone was happy introducing themselves to each other, I noticed that the last girl - the one with short black hair - stood quietly alone near the school gate.

"What's wrong, Suguha-chan?" Asuna asked that girl. I assume her name must be Suguha.

"...Shino just called me today. She said that my brother's condition...worsened today..."

Suguha said sorrowfully.

"Mr. Kirigaya...my father, said that his psyche condition remained normal, but something's wrong with his life support. They assumed that something happened to him..._in that world_." Suguha said.

_In that world?_

_My brother's condition?_

_Mr. Kirigaya?_

I started to piece together everything I've heard.

"Er, are you by any chances the sister of Kirigaya Kazuto?" I bluntly asked. I know this because I once read in the news about a boy with that name, the hero who saved everyone from SAO, and probably someone close to Asuna. After piercing together what I heard, I figured out that this girl here might've related to him.

Suguha exclaimed in surprise, before both she and Asuna looked at me.

"Ah! How did you know that I was...never mind! Actually, I'm not his sister! I'm his cousin! Wha! Why did I just said that!?" Suguha was dancing around weirdly, apparently my question caught her off guard and she didn't have time to think about it.

"Otonashi-san. Er, don't mind her but, Suguha's pretty sensitive when it comes to her brother, cousin, whatever. Just, keep those questions about Kazuto out of topic when talking with her, okay? I don't want her to be in any more pain than now..." Asuna said to me, while trying to calm Suguha down.

"You said that Kazuto's condition worsened, right?" Asuna asked.

"Yeah, from what I heard from Shino it seems to be true!" Suguha said.

"Then let's go visit him today."

Asuna then turned to talk to me and the rest of our friends, who've finished introducing to each other.

"I'm visiting Kazuto today, anyone wanted to go with me?" She asked us.

"Hell yeah! It's been a while since I saw that boy!" The guy with the red bandana - Tsuboi Ryoutarou, or Klein - shouted up.

"Yeah! I've missed him, too! Let's go see him!" The girl with brown hair - Shinozaki Rika, Lisbeth - said happily.

"Hey, why don't we invite your new friends too, Asuna?" The young girl with twin tails - Ayano Keiko, or Silica - asked Asuna.

Asuna looked at us.

"So, would you guys like to come along?"

In the end, all of us went with her.

Tomorrow's weekend, so we could afford to stay out late before going home, so we all decided to accompany Asuna to see her friend, Kazuto.

"So, could you tell us what happened to Kazuto? Er...if you don't like to speak about it, it's fine..." Iwasawa asked Asuna.

Asuna took a deep breath, before explaining.

"It all happened two months ago. Kirito..I mean, Kazuto. He got attacked by someone who has a grudge against us during our time in SAO. Although that man was arrested, Kazuto was in coma from the attack. He's been chosen to participate in something. I don't know about it exactly, but I learned it was a secret government project. I don't know the details, but it didn't matter. After a month, they told us they can't save him, and handed him over to this...this new project. A new project about a new virtual reality world created for those with disabilities to live in."

_Sounds very similar to us. _I thought.

"Eventually, my friend tracked down the location of where the project took place. It's not too far from here, and the people there are all friendly to us. It's just...there's only one thing that's been bothering me this past few weeks...It made me feel uneasy..." Asuna said, her voice sounded troubled.

"The project leader. His name is Hideo Akihiko."

I felt like I've just been struck by lightning.

"Akihiko? You mean _that _Akihiko? The one who made SAO?" Yuri asked.

"Yes, he's his son. The son of the very same man that started all of this..." Asuna said bitterly.

Now I know why Asuna seemed troubled every time I tried to talk about Kazuto.

How could she felt easy when the life of her friend rests in the hands of the son of their former enemy?

* * *

Eventually, we arrived at our destination.

It was a five-story tall building, probably an office, or an apartment.

We walked into the lobby.

"I'm here to meet Mr. Akihiko." Asuna told the lobby guard.

"Do you have an appointment, young lady?" The guard asked.

Asuna searched inside her pocket bag.

"Darn it! I forgot my appointment card!" Asuna cried out.

"Sorry, girl. No appointment, no entry." The guard said.

"There's no need for appointment for these visitors, Mr. Takashi. You can let them in. My permission." A deep voice came from the loudspeaker overhead.

I looked at Asuna, she's looking at the loudspeaker.

I noticed that aside from the loudspeaker, there's a security camera next to it.

_So that's why he could see us._

The guard grabbed the microphone on his table and spoke into it.

"Yes, Mr. Akihiko. I'll let them in now, sir...Alright, you guys can go inside now. But I warned you, don't make any troubles inside the lab, got it?" He gave us a somewhat frustrated look.

"Y-yeah. We promised to behave, Mr. Takashi." I looked at his nameplate.

The guard, Mr. Takashi, then finally calms down.

"Go straight ahead, take the lift to the basement. After that, tell the guards inside that you're here with Mr. Akihiko's permission."

* * *

Two minutes later, (Damn that limited lift capacity! It's not like about two dozens of people would be a lot of trouble!) we've arrived at the basement floor, which I assumed to be the lab.

Two armed guards escorted us to deep inside the lab.

After some more walking, we finally arrived at our destination.

"Whoa! Look at the size of that thing!" Hinata exclaimed.

"How did they build all of these!?" Iwasawa said surprisingly.

"I think I'm gonna passed out..." Noda said.

Even I couldn't believe what I saw, either.

We've arrived in a giant hall, underground, and there were buildings everywhere.

It is, hands down, one of the largest underground complex I've ever seen.

The hall itself spanned across the large area, probably more than a mile wide.

There's small rooms, divided into sections like most offices.

I looked around, and saw that there's also power plants here, as well as recreational areas, like a basketball court. Damn! This place is like one little city, underground!

How did no one else from the above world discover all of these!?

I looked at Kanade, she gave me a reassuring look.

Oh, I almost forgot she once worked on a project like this before. _Our_ project.

Like Asuna and her friends, she must've been here before.

But why didn't she tell anyone about _it_ yet?

To hide the truth about this place? The fact that virtual reality experiment on humans still existed?

The fact that there's a whole mini-city down here?

There's no way any company could've made all of this on their own. They must be backed by something more powerful...probably a government...maybe an international cooperation between countries?

That's probably why they could still kept the information about this place a top secret.

In front of us, a young man appeared. He's not too old. Actually, I could say he's about our age. About 18-19 years old. He was wearing a lab coat and a pair of glasses.

"Welcome, my friends! To Avalon! The first ever fully functional underground city of the world!"

He spread his hands around and smiled happily.

"My name is Hideo Akihiko! Some of you may know me as the son of the late Dr. Kayaba Akihiko. My father whose, unfortunately, gone mad from too much work stress and tried to murder people...all of which has nothing to do with me!" Hideo glanced at Asuna, who's giving him a fiery look.

"I know, I know. I'm the son of the most notorious mass murderer in the last fifty years. I swear to you, I'm nothing like my father. In fact, I hate him for doing what he did."

"Then why didn't you stop him!? He killed thousands of people, some of them our friends, and you just fuckin' watched?!" Klein screamed, and lunged forward, trying to attack him, but Asuna and the dark-skinned man -Andrew Gilbert Mills, or how he preferred to be called Agil - stopped him.

"What was I supposed to do? Shut down everything? He was _inside _the computer at that time! You know it yourself, right? That kid, Kazuto, fought with him himself. I can't stop him from the outside. If I did, then the program he installed as a fail-safe will kill everyone who's still connected to SAO! Technically, I saved your lives, you know that!?"

Klein stopped resisting. He still gave Hideo an angry look.

"Mr. Akihiko. The result is ready, sir." A young girl walked up next to him.

I looked at her, she has a short dark-brown hair and also wore a pair of glasses similar to Hideo.

"So, Asuna-chan. You're finally here." The girl said.

"How's Kazuto doing, Shino?" Asuna asked.

"Not very well..." That was all she said.

Hideo, realizing that the situation is starting to turn grim, then shouted.

"Hey! Why are we all still here!? Let's all go see your friend, shall we?" Hideo said happily, but all of us remained stoic.

We all started follow him through the city.

"Well, as you can see, our little city have everything that could sustain life. We have a working water supply and electricity, as well as medicines and food that's being transported from the above world. The position near the Earth's core reassured us that we'll have a nice, warm weather all year long. An air purification system that could let us breath in here just like the outside world. Well, as a matter of fact, the only downside of this city is that you won't ever see the sky, but who cares about that!? It's not like we're going to live in here for the rest of our lives!" And then he laughed, before continued.

"Now, now. This city, Avalon, was created for the purpose of expanding living areas that's currently getting lower and lower on Japan. You know, overpopulation...maybe you teenagers should start thinking about using birth control methods! This isn't some erotic hentai visual novels! There's no such things as safe-sex without precautions, you know!?" And then he laughed like mad again, this guy is one crazy dude...

We build this place for the sake of homeless and poor Japanese citizens who can't find a place to live above. It's a joint operation between us and the government. That's all you need to know! The rest is our company secret!" He explained.

After some more walking, we reached a small hall. There's numerous capsule-like tubes placed in rows.

"Of course, as the time passed, the cost to maintain all of these got higher, and the resources have been getting lower, so we need to figure out new ways of creating places for the homeless, right? That's why I came up with this!" He pointed at those machines.

"These are my crown jewels. My little masterpiece. It's called the Brain System Amplifier, or BSA, for short. It utilized the FullDive Technology, my father's work, to be precise, and enhanced it, to the point that when you use it, you felt like you're reborn into a different world. All of these is called Project Rebirth. Well, it gave people new lives, so it's Rebirth, right? Man, I'm such a genius."

I looked at some of the tubes, they have people, _living_ people in there. The tube's also filled with water.

"That's so gross!" Yui screamed.

"It's like some alien experiment!" Yuri said, her voice filled with horror.

"Don't worry, they're alright. We use this to preserve their bodies in fine conditions while they're still in the virtual reality. This water you saw is very cold, cold enough to freeze their other body functions, keeping them in a state similar to animal hibernation, alive and young. Think of it as a human refrigerator."

Even though it was pretty gross, but I admit it's a pretty genius idea.

And then we finally arrived, tube number 51.

"Kazuto!" Asuna shouted, and ran to the tube.

I looked inside, and saw a young man in there. He has a black hair, similar to Suguha.

This must be the legendary Kirigaya Kazuto.

"He's okay, for now." Hideo said. His expression turned grim, something I didn't expect to see, after how cheerful he was moments ago.

"What do you mean 'for now'?" Agil asked.

"I don't know what happened, but there's been some error. We've started losing life support that's holding this kid together. If his life support ran out, then his severely damaged brain will ceased to function. Well, in other words, _deader than Elvis._"

"You bastard! You said you will take care of him!" Asuna lost it, she tried to punch Hideo but I stopped him.

"I'm trying to do everything I could, girl! Ask Shino, your friend! I'm trying to save everybody's here! I have other responsibilities, you know! I can't babysit your boyfriend forever!" Hideo shouted out.

"How long do we have before his life support runs out?" I asked.

"I've rerouted all unnecessary powers to this tube, so I think he'll have about six days before it ran out. Seven, tops." Hideo said miserably.

"I've tried everything, but Kazuto's tube won't respond to me! It's like it's been infected with some virus or...something. I can't fix it on the outside..."

"Then why don't you go inside and fix it yourself?" Yuri asked.

"You heard me, lady. I've got other priorities to do. One boy's life is not worth the entire city, hero or not." Hideo said.

"...We'll go inside, just tell us what to do, and we'll fix them." I said.

Everybody was shocked, even Hideo.

"What ARE you thinking, buddy!?" Hinata shouted.

"Otonashi-san! Don't do anything rash!" Naoi cried.

"Wow, so you got some guts after all." Noda smiled.

Shouts were coming from everywhere.

I know, it's a stupid, suicidal thing that I'm about to do.

But I've been through that feeling before...

The subway, the Afterlife, the Shadow Incident.

They don't know that I've died countless times before...

This situation means nothing to me.

The guy in the tube in front of me, Kazuto, he's been through so much more, just like me.

He didn't deserve to die here.

I'm that type of guy anyways, always helping people when I had a chance.

"Look, guys. I'm going, and nothing could change my mind." I announced.

"Wait, if you're going, then I'll go with you." Asuna said.

"Wait a second, Kazuto's our friend, too! We'll go with you guys!" Agil, Klein, Silica and Lizbeth said simultaneously.

"You're not going anywhere alone, you maniac! There's no Otonashi without Hinata!" Hinata said cheerfully.

"I won't let you alone with Otonashi-san! I'll come, too!" Naoi protested.

"We'll go, too." Yuri and Kanade said.

"If Yuri's going, then I'm going!" Noda yelled out.

"Wait a sec, so If I don't go, you won't go?" Yuri asked.

"Right, why ask that, Yuri-chan?" Noda said.

"You are unbelievable..." Yuri facepalmed.

"Uh, guys, there's one thing..." Hideo spoke out.

"There's only 9 available tubes left for now, so only 9 people can go...and one of them must be me..." Hideo said.

"Why? Didn't you just said you need to take care of your underground empire?" Asuna asked.

"I know!" Hideo screamed. "But...I need to keep my promise..."

"The manual overwrite system can only be activated by my ID code only, if I can't do it from the outside, then I must do it from the inside, so I need to go."

"So...who's gonna volunteer?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"Well, it's not gonna work that way. We need to choose..."

* * *

So, after so much debate (which ended only after a fist fight between Noda and Klein...), those who are going including me, Asuna, Hinata, Kanade, Yuri, Klein, Agil, Iwasawa and Hideo.

"No! Don't leave me behind, Yuri-chan!" Noda screamed out. He was crying, now.

"You idiot..."

"Otonashi-kun! Don't go, please!" Naoi begged me.

"Hinata! You idiot! Why did you leave me behind!?" Yui cried.

Everyone who wasn't chosen all shouted up, begging us not to go, or to bring them with us...

"Alright, it's settled, then." Hideo said.

"Everybody take these." He handed me a little pill, then hand them to others.

"This pill contained information about how that world works, so you won't be making fun of yourselves out there. And, in case I failed, instructions to manually begin the rewriting sequence." He explained.

"Normally, when you got inside that world, there'll be an AI programmed to explain the basics about the world to you, but since we're in a hurry, we'll have to do this the quick way."

"Step into the tubes when you're ready, then my assistant Shino will take care of things." He explained.

We did as he told us.

"Alright, you see that thing above your head? The helmet-like thing? Grab it and wear it around your head." Hideo said through the voice speaker.

"Whoa, it's similar to NerveGear!" Klein said.

"That's because it's a NerveGear, you idiot! I've made some improvements from my father's designs." Hideo told him.

"Alright, everybody got their gear? Great. Here's the tricky part: A cold water will fill your tubes, but don't worry! You'll be sedated and sleep before even know what's happened. Take a deep breath." Hideo told us.

"Alright Shino, began the Brain Transfusion Progress." Hideo ordered through the voice speaker.

"Yes, Mr. Akihiko."

Cold water started rising from my feet.

"Ahhhh!" I heard Yuri screamed from the tube beside me. "It's soooo cold!"

"Keep calm! Steady! The sleep gas will work any minute now!" Hideo shouted.

Damn it, I felt so cold, too.

Maybe I shouldn't have decided to do this...

Can't quit now!

The cold water risen to my neck level now, within seconds, it'll cover my head.

"Er, Hideo? I don't think the sleep gas's working!" I shouted through the voice speaker.

"It's working! Just a few more seconds!" He shouted back.

The water have risen to my month now...

My body was freezing. It was the most painful feeling I've ever felt...

And then, I felt lighter. I felt as if my body is floating into the sky...

And then I drifted to sleep...

* * *

I finally opened my eyes.

I was standing in some sort of a school ground.

I looked at my body, it was still here. The pain from cold water was already gone. In fact, my body haven't got wet at all.

I looked around. This place here...

It looked just the same as the the Afterlife World...only somewhat bigger, and more real.

_Are you fucking kidding me?_

"Hey! Otonashi!" I heard a voice, it was Hinata's.

"Coming!" I ran to where the voice's coming.

When I arrived, I saw Hinata and the rest of the team here, except Hideo.

"Arg, where the hell am I, am I dead?" Klein looked around confusingly.

Hinata, Yuri and Iwasawa were surprised, too.

"This place...this place just looked like the place in my dreams!" Yuri said shockingly.

I looked at Kanade, she gave me a nod.

_They didn't remember their time in the Afterlife, so they can't recognize this place from their memories, instead thinking about it as some sort of a dream._

"This is some Inception-shit we've got ourselves into..." Hinata cried out.

"Wait a minute, where's Hideo?" Agil asked.

"Yeah! Where's Hideo? Anybody see him?" Asuna said.

Suddenly, I heard a voice.

"C...you...h...us...Anyone...!"

It came from the sky.

"Can anyone...us...!?" It was Shino's voice!

"Shino? Shino! It's me, Yuzuru! We've arrived safety in the virtual world!"

I shouted up the sky. It must've been very weird if others saw me do this in real life.

"Shino! Do you know where's Hideo!? We can't find him anywhere!" Asuna shouted up, too.

"Listen carefully...guys...Hideo...d...do you hear!?..."

"I can't hear you, Shino! What did you say!?" I shouted back.

"Hideo...is...dead! His tube...rigged...explosions, it exploded...soon as he... inside that world!..."

_What. The. Fuck._

I looked around, everybody's eyes opened wide, they all freeze in place.

All of us couldn't believe it.

"Guys!...hear...us?!...Find Kazuto!...He...help you!..."

And then the transmission was lost.

We were left standing here, with nothing to guide us...

"Not this shit again..." Asuna screamed.

* * *

**Editor's note: Well, another long chapter finished, with a big cliffhanger from Yuzuru's POV. **

**I've introduced the SAO characters using their real life names first, so don't confuse them with their avatar names in SAO. For example, most people would know Shino as Sinon, Kirito's partner/rival from Gun Gale Online, but her real life name is Asada Shino so I used it as how her friends called her in the real world.**

**Stay tuned for more! The story's just started to get interesting!**


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